https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/03/23/us-soccer-ceo-will-wilson "Wilson, 52, comes to U.S. Soccer from the Wasserman sports agency, where he was an executive vice-president and co-head of football for the last eight years. He’s an uncle of Andrew Luck, whom he signed as Wasserman’s first American football client in 2012. Wilson also spent four years as an executive with Soccer United Marketing and Major League Soccer managing all their international business relationships. The past connection to SUM, which has a deep business relationship with U.S. Soccer, will raise concerns from some critics who have said the federation is too close to a company that financially benefits the owners of MLS. But that didn’t appear to be a big concern for the U.S. Soccer board of directors, which gave Wilson its unanimous approval in a vote on Sunday." Cordeiro still on the board as well, just like Sunil was. Interesting football background but from what I could find pretty limited to SUM business deals and not much soccer experience. What are your thoughts?
us-soccer-names-longtime-sports-executive-will-wilson-as-new-ceo Flynn's replacement is named. Not sure if MLS/SUM ties are a good thing anymore.
Garber reportedly recused himself when the name came up for consideration. Is the soccer world so small that our federation officials can’t find anyone to nominate without prepping for COI and nepotism charges? Here’s a crazy idea: name someone from outside the old boy network. Edit: or as our friend @Susaeta just tweeted: 1242215397153103874 is not a valid tweet id
Not as much of a home run hire as I'd like; I'd have prefer to gotten someone higher up in the NBA and perhaps with less soccer experience. That said, the pro/rel crowd will boo the SUM/MLS connection, but the reality is that his job is largely marketing, and SUM has been largely effective at promoting. The USSF surplus is almost entirely from their successful, somewhat last minute execution on Copa America in the US. It would a problem to send someone into media and sponsorship negotiations with no background. And he speaks Spanish and isn't Berhalter or another internal candidate. But I still would have preferred someone higher up elsewhere.
Amused by some of these responses judging a person who they haven't even heard of until earlier today.
On the surface, an underwhelming hire. For an organization so desperate for new blood and new ideas, making yet another insider hire just screams “tone deaf” from USSF. What would it have hurt to have brought in a higher-ranking NBA person?
Yeah, like everyone else, I've never heard of this guy, but I'm disappointed they seemingly can't bear to appoint anyone outside the USSF/MLS/SUM nexus to any leadership position. I'm not even a big USSF/MLS/SUM conspiracy theorist; it just seems so obvious that the entire organization needs someone external to look at how things operate with a fresh set of eyes.
not a player from a 94, 98 or 02 world cup squad, has never been as assistant under arena or bradley. dudes basically a complete outsider!
Looking at attendance and TV ratings, I wouldn't call any marketing by SUM a success. But that is for another thread... CEO is not primarily a marketing position. That is the CCO. CEO runs the whole organization, not just the marketing organization. I doubt Flynn had any impact on marketing other than approving their budget. Hiring Garber's friend, Jay's brother, who else knows how many in the organization were placed there through contacts. Even if it is just a perception problem, it is a problem. A little shocking they didn't hire any of the other 10 million possible candidates that are not friends with the MLS commissioner just to get away from the negative perception. Also,"Andrew Luck's agent", who probably got the job primarily because he is his uncle, is hardly the resume people were expecting. Maybe the job doesn't pay enough or the fact you will be deposed every other day made better candidates turned off. But it is the kind of underwhelming resume that is in line with middling MLS coach, Sports announcer, and Philly Union GM. However, it usually doesn't go well when you hire someone to manage a company of 200 people with no experience managing a company of that size.
If he's Andrew Luck's uncle is he related to Oliver Luck? He could be an uncle on the mom's side. Oliver Luck was a good GM for a hated rival who was there when they were good and had good attendance (Houston has since proven that a downtown stadium is no panacea). I'd say a little knowledge of SUM but 10 years ago is not a deal breaker. Other than that I don't know anything about the guy. As to if others were brought in who knows? I imagine anyone interviewing wanted complete privacy unless they said yes so that they wouldn't lose their current gig.
Those Higher-ranking NBA people would need to want to be a part of the tire fire that is Soccer House.... That is a really naive statement....He's a decorated US International, had a long professional career in Europe, and after retiring was a successful technical director, and director of Football for various Dutch Clubs for over a decade prior to coming to MLS.
Not taking the bait. I don't know who this guy is, nor had I heard of him prior to yesterday's announcement. So I don't know. When he was at SUM, he primarily dealt with the FMF. Which, if one was looking at the broader picture, would make some sense with the 2026 World Cup coming up. That was likely a factor in the hiring, seeing as the USSF is hosting the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Having those previous relationships with FMF officials could be considered a positive. I honestly don't know if this is a good hire or not.
Some mid-table Dutch clubs he did well and he was less successful in MLS, maybe for obvious reasons. He did not run Manchester United or even Ajax. Berhalter coached the Columbus Crew, not Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. All great former players on not great national teams. It is better than former lacrosse coach or former college coach. It is better than economist playing GM on the side. But none of these hires are at the top of their field and never were. So, is Wilson. Time will tell. But if USSF was going to hire a Garber flunky, it would look a lot like him. The best thing, supposedly, is that Cordeiro insulated the sports side from the business side. How Wasserman fits in is unknown to me.
it’s kinda BS to take shots at other people’s comments if you aren’t willing to take a position. IIRC, you’re a big MLS fan so the potential conflict between MLS/SUM and the USSF may not bother you as you may want MLS to benefit. however, it was clear that there’s a strong appearance of conflict of interest between the parties (as stated by multiple people involved with USSF including the outgoing Chairman) as well as a rather clear case of too much inside baseball. There can be little doubt that this is a terrible terrible outcome if you’re a believer in fresh thinking and/or more transparency.